On New Year’s Day, none of us had heard of Covid 19 but things have changed very radically in a short time.
Our Courts have closed down for all but the most essential matters. Law offices were first told that only 25% of their workforce could come in on any given day. Now all personnel…
This past January, back when your 401lk was a bit fatter, the SECURE Act came into being, probably to make us somewhat less secure. Basically, this new act shortens the time you have to take distributions from your retirement accounts to ten years with some exceptions for payments to certain “eligible designated beneficiaries”. Therefore, while…
Over the past several years, the budget axe has fallen upon our Surrogate’s courts. The loss of personnel has resulted in huge backlogs in clerks’ offices. A simple application for Letters of Administration may literally take months during which time it may be impossible to insure property of the estate. An application to sell the…
When it comes to elder law and guardianships, the Sunshine State is more like the wild west. Nursing homes and hospitals are a fertile hunting ground for unscrupulous attorneys who may convince residents to sign documents authorizing them to commence guardianship proceedings on their behalf. In many Florida counties, this may lead to a friendly…
New York has approved an amendment to SCPA 1301 which raises the limits for small estates from thirty thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars. A small estate is a simplified proceeding in the Surrogate’s Court where it is possible to qualify as a Voluntary Administrator by downloading and filing a basic affidavit of Voluntary Administration…
Today’s New York Daily News reports the tale of a brawl with potentially wide-reaching implications for the Administrator of a New York County Estate. The administrator of the 3.1 million dollar estate was arrested for a brawl outside of a New Jersey strip club in which he has been accused of assaulting a police officer.…
In the Matter of Reuben Hoppenstein, No. 2015-2918/A (N.Y. Sur. Mar. 31, 2017) the New York County Surrogate ruled as appropriate the distribution of a life insurance policy to a new trust which eliminated certain beneficiaries of the distributing trust. This distribution was made by a trustee vested with absolute discretionary power by the terms…
The New York Law Journal has reported that newly appointed Kings County Surrogate John Ingram has barred the testimony of a widow in an action about whether or not she may exercise her spousal right of election in the matter of her late husband’s estate. Irving Berk, who died in 2006, left a five million…
A recent article in New York’s Daily News reports on the Queens County political machine and its incredible control over proceedings in that county’s Surrogate’s Court. It is a primer on the perils of what can happen where there is no Will and no decent estate plan. Your lawblogger has often commented on the way…
This morning, the U;S. Supreme Court issued a major decision in U.S. v Windsor as Executor of the Estate of Spyer which can be read here. In doing so, it has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) , thereby granting same sex marriages the same rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples under federal law.…
